Kate's In Town

It's Thursday morning already - been a busy week with Kerri and Kate here. We got a new storm door for the front door. Now we can keep the house door open and still see outside through the window of the storm door. It has a screen in the top half that rolls up and down when needed. Nice for some airflow doing summer days.

Kerri's friend Maureen and her boyfriend came over last night for dinner and a visit to see Kate and Kerri. We ha a nice meal but ran out of propane while cooking the chicken. duh? Dee saved the day by finishing it on the stove. We've been watching the various parts of the John Adams HBO series. Fascinating stuff - we're enjoying it. However, last night the power went off for about 20 minutes. Had to scurry around and find candles light the way. The whole area was blacked out from the storm.

Here's another photo of Kate. She sure is adorable. And becoming quite the coo-er. Coos back and smiles when she does it. Great stuff.

Home from Barbershop Music Camp

My trip to Kenyon College in Ohio went well. There were about 250 barbershoppers from PA,OH and KY there to take classes and sing. Here's a photo of the dining hall (It's the one with people in it) and of the student dining hall. Impressive.

The classes I took were of a more technical nature this year. Two were on using the computer to create learning CDs with programs called "Audacity' and "Finale". And the third class that I took all day Sat. was on "How to Arrange Sheet Music in the Barbershop Style". I was curious about what the key principles are for doing that. The instructor, Don Gray, has been doing that for 25 years and so he boiled it all down to the basics. There were about 12 of us in the class and we took "You Belong To Me" and worked on making it singable for barbershoppers. It was fascinating to watch the creative process unfold and to consider the hundreds of questions you had to be asking yourself regarding what you wanted to do. Good Stuff.

Here's a photo of Don Gray.

Kerri and Kate are coming to town today. Patrick has work out of town, so she decided to come back to Pittsburgh for 5 days. Can't wait to see them.

Home from NJ

Here's the most recent picture of Kate at 7 1/2 weeks.

Well our trip went well. We drove home yesterday from Linwood NJ. It took 7 hours and 10 minutes and was 383 miles from door to door. We were able to visit with my sister, Faye en route and she got to see Kate via "skype" video cam conferencing.We went with her to a restaurant that had wi-fi and she, Rich and Lauren got to see and talk with Kerri. Isn't technology great!

From there we headed to Absecon to stay with Paula for two nights. It started to rain when we got on the AC Expressway and didn't stop raining until about10 a.m. on Thursday. That was just in time to allow me to go golfing with Bob Morris and the afternoon group at Greate Bay Country Club. I was really hitting the ball well and was pleased with my game. Then, Dee came over for dinner with the group. It was nice seeing all those old friends again. Dee had been visiting with her friends from work from 1 p.m. till about 5:15 p.m. They were thrilled to see her again and had lots to talk about.

The rains started up again and continued all through Friday until early afternoon. The wedding rehearsal was at 6 and then we had a lovely rehearsal dinner at 7:30 at the Inlet Restaurant. The meal was awesome. A great place to go and celebrate. Afterward, we got together with some Andy and Paula, Marie and Tony at the Crab Trap and talked for a while before everyone went their separate ways.

We did get a chance to visit with our friend Sara Green on Friday and with Marie at the church. Rev. Reeder and I got to visit while Marie and Dee chatted. Since I'd taken my white robe, we decided to use robes for the wedding. That turned out very nice. Then, Dee and I had a late lunch at the Cheeseboard deli and then went to visit the Morris' at their nome.

Then on Saturday the wedding took place at 11 a.m. Heather look stunning. It was a beautiful white dress with red trim with a beaded design The deep red trim also went through the train. Very nice. Heather's father, Bob was able to be at the wedding and rallied from his hospital visit earlier in the week. It all went well. The reception was at Boogie Nights, in the Resorts Casino. It turned out to be a nice venue for the young people in our party. We enjoyed it too.

Later we went and walked on the Ocean City Boardwalk and enjoyed watching the waves and the people. Andy had a picnic cookout and invited us over to share burgers and hotdogs. We watched the end of the Phillies game and the first period of the Penguins game. (ouch) Then finished out the evening in our motel room.

Sunday morning we had breakfast with Mae and Kat at Fitzpatrick's Deli and then went to church. Pastor Reeder had been very gracious throughout the weekend. It was nice to see the church people again. And when Frank announced that we were there, people applauded. That was nice. There were some new faces there and we were glad for that. But it was really nice to see our old friends and spend some time with them in worship and communion. We left the church at 1 p.m. and got home (nice sunny drive) at 8:10 p.m.

Heading to NJ

We're leaving for NJ this morning, but I thought I'd post the photo of the new window treatment we got yesterday for the front windows of the house in the living room.

Our trip to NJ will include a stop at my sister, Faye's home for a brief visit en route to the wedding I'll be officiating at my former church, Seaview Baptist on Saturday.

What a Happy Baby!!!

Here's a brief video Kerri sent of Kate's "responsive smile". Something she's just started doing in the last week.

Dee and I were able to use the hot tub the other night after the rains subsided. It was nice out and we enjoyed getting to use it again. On Friday we went out for breakfast and used a certificate they'd sent us in the mail. I love the omelets at Freedom Diner.

Afterward we picked up a couple of items we needed and headed home. We enjoyed sitting on the porch and having a cookout on the grill (chicken) and I made risotto. I really tasted good. I stirred and stirred and stirred. We learned about it at the "gourmet getaway" back in January. In the evening I read some more of my WWII book "An Army At Dawn". Fascinating stuff.

Today, Saturday, we both worked (I finished rangering at Treesdale at 3 and she finishes at 6:30 PM.) So we decided to use the "birthday gift card" Red Robin emailed us for her birthday. That'll be nice because we like their food there. I'm working a golf outing on Monday which should be interesting. It's supposed to be big and involve about 6 of us rangers. As it stands now, it looks like the schedules we wrote for ourselves will continue and I'll be working most Saturdays of the summer. (except for the 6th and 13th when I'll be gone.)

Golf and the movie ANGELS AND DEMONS

Kate and family are doing well. Here's another picture of her.

It's Friday morning and raining. Fortunately I got in 9 holes of golf after Rotary on Wednesday, and then 18 holes yesterday. Yesterday I golfed with two other rangers at Treesdale. I was very pleased with my round. I actually got 2 birdies (both on par 3 holes)! I haven't had a birdie in over a year, and yesterday I had two! Amazing, and in front of witnesses to boot. God is Good.

Today I'm returning some "woods" to a company called Warrior. They had a deal for a free hybrid golf club if you'd try their 1,3,5 woods. And have a money back guarantee. Today they go back. I had to get a "return authorization number" before I could return them. Getting that number was a trip. They offered to let me keep the clubs and return half my money, then they offered to send me a "free" set of irons if I kept them. I was insistent that I wanted my full refund. (I did all this on the phone, just as the movie was starting at Showcase Cinemas.)

I had stepped out of the theater to go to the bathroom and my cell phone rang. It was the customer service department of Warrior. They'd left a message. I returned the call right then because I wanted to get that authorization number and had only been dealing with phone operators. So, for the next 20 minutes I talked with the guy about my refund. (Dee thought I'd gotten sick from the popcorn and came looking for me. I assured her I was okay and that I was trying to get the authorization now that I was actually talking with a person.) Although I missed the first 20 minutes of ANGELS AND DEMONS I did get the refund code #.

Since I'd read the book, I knew the plot of the movie, and enjoyed the rest of the movie. It's a MUST SEE flick. Good stuff. Great mystery. Dee and I hadn't been to a movie theater in a long time. We decided to go, and then discovered that our Cranberry theater closed! So we went to the Showcase Cinemas on McKnight Road. As it turns out Wednesday is seniors day. All people over 60 get in for $4.50 all day! Cool. We even used the coupon they gave us for a discount on drink and popcorn. Very nice.

On Sunday I read an article in the Post-Gazette entitled "They Died for You" by Rick Atkinson. It was about WWII. The things every American should know about WWII. It was a great article and I was motivated to buy his book "An Army At Dawn" (the first of three books about WWII).

I'm clueless about that war and this writer is a good story teller and packs in loads of facts. I'm 100 pages into it and am enjoying it very much. I didn't realize WWII had been going on for 27 months before the United States got into it. Nor did a realize that 1,150 men died every hour in it - for 7 years! Atkinson is working on the third book in the series. This first book is about our invasion of Africa; the second book is about Italy and the third is about France and Germany I think. Good rainy day reading.

Nice Picnic!

Well the "coming out picnic" for Kate is now history. The weather cooperated and we had a blast. There was plenty of food and 26 people in all (three of whom were children). Thanks to John and BJ for cooking the burgers and dogs and to everyone else who brought delicious side dishes and desserts. Dee's pulled pork went over very well. (We decided not to have chicken.) We even had halushki and cheese cake! Our friends from our very first church, Mooncrest Community Baptist Church, Chuck and Betty Werme, were able to come and meet Kate. (Betty had saved a newspaper photo of 34 years ago when it published a photo of me, Dee and a brand new baby named, Kerri. She recently sent it to Kerri and we thought it would be nice for Kerri to meet the Wermes.) Here is a picture of Kate in her debut dress. Also one of Kerri holding her in a "wrap", and of Grandma Dee with Kate.

Our visit with the Julians went very well. Kate slept well doing her regular feedings on time. We never even heard her during the night. And when we went to church and out to eat, she just snoozed away. Folks at Church were happy to see her.

I started back to work at Treesdale and worked a few hours on Saturday and on Memorial Day (after the Julians left for VA.) The weather was sunny buy not real hot, which made of a nice afternoon of riding in the golf cart and watching people golf, and picking up a few lost golf balls.